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THE 



ELECTIVE SYSTEM 



IN 



TECHNOLOGICAL SCHOOLS. 



BY 



M. E. WADSWORTH. 



Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Englaeerinfj 

Education.) 



1896. 



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THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AS ADOPTED IN THE 
MICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. 

BY M. EDWAED WADSWORTH, 

Director of the Michigan Mining School, Houghton. 

In the United States two systems have been chiefly 
followed in the higher educational institutions — the 
Fixed and the Elective. The latter was introduced 
first in this country by President Way land, of Brown 
University, and it has since been systematized and de- 
veloped with remarkable skill and success by Presi- 
dent Eliot, of Harvard. Indeed, the system has 
proved to be so well adapted to the needs of modern 
times, and to be so popular, that it has made its way 
in the face of strenuous opposition, until all or nearly 
all of our colleges and universities have employed it 
for their work in general or literary, and scientific 
education. 

In technical or engineering education the case has 
been different, since even those colleges, like Harvard, 
Leland Stanford, or the University of Michigan, which 
have a most liberal elective system for general educa- 
tion, have still only a partially modified form of the 
rigid system in the engineering or technical coui*ses. 
The rigid system is disguised in most institutions in 
their technical work under the head of election be- 
tween various fixed courses, which may or may not 
have a few options, or it masquerades under an elec- 
tive dress to which it has but little, if any, right. 

The elective system proper in any of the higher in- 
stitutions giving general education, consisted of two 
features : 1st. The Essential Studies. 2d. The Se- 

(3) 



4 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

qiience of Studies. The first is composed of those 
studies which are considered in each institution as 
necessary, or essential to maintain the scholarship or 
traditions of the school in question, and in engineer- 
ing courses, not even excepting that at Harvard, the 
required or essential studies to-day constitute the 
chief amount of the entire course in any of the en- 
gineering branches. In the case of general or literary 
education, the number of studies that are considered 
essential usually rapidly diminishes, according to the 
experience and number of the faculty, until only a 
few studies are required ; and in time this feature will 
be fully eliminated. 

Regarding the second, or ''The Sequence of Stud- 
ies," but little public attention is called to it in any 
statements relating to electives in any institution, al- 
though it is the keynote of them all. No school can 
maintain any elective system, or any work above a 
kindergarten or primary grade, without carefully con- 
sidering the question of the natural sequences. It is 
the unwritten law that no student can take calculus 
who has not previously prepared himself in algebra, 
nor can he study petrography without any knowledge 
of mineralogy. 

All the catalogues of the advanced institutions show 
that they tacitly recognize the law of sequence of 
studies with greater or less fullness, but I do not know 
of any which call attention to the fact, except the 
recent prospectus of the Michigan Mining School. 

In truth, the greatest curses that beset any system of 
electives are the neglect of proper sequences in the 
studies, and the tendency of various instructors to bid 



THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 5 

for students by giving weak and inferior (technically 
known as soft) courses. This last, like many of the 
other ills of educational institutions, can be partially, 
if not entirely, removed by placing the charge of the 
instruction under one experienced executive head, 
which head is to be held strictly accountable for the 
success of the work, and is to be given absolute control 
over all the instructors, with power to discharge them 
if they do not properly perform their functions. In 
other words, there should be introduced into our col- 
leges more of the business methods of successful busi- 
ness houses — the direct responsibility for and power 
of the individual over everything placed under his 
charge. 

The Michigan Mining School has attempted, so far as 
the institution's province of training men to assist in 
the development of the mineral wealth of the country 
will enable it to do so, to apply to technical or engineer- 
ing education, the methods in use in the elective sys- 
tems employed for general or literary instruction. In 
accomplishing this it has tried to reduce to a minimum 
all studies to be taken by every student, to conserve 
the sequence, and to obtain thorough work by the 
business method of individual responsibility. 

The onl}^ studies required of all the pupils here are 
Elementary Geology and the Elementary Principles of 
Mining ; these are asked for, because it is believed that 
in any institution dealing with the problems relating 
to the mineral wealth the pupil should have some 
knowledge of geology and of mining methods, and also 
because the Director (who in this case happens to be in 
charge of the geological instruction) desires to come 



•6 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

into personal contact with every pupil in the school, 
early in his course. The above-mentioned studies re- 
quire, altogether, the pupil's presence in the class- 
room, only three times a week for thirty-four weeks. 

Outside of the Elementary Geolog}^ and Mining the 
student is allowed unrestricted freedom of choice in 
his studies, the same as he is in the literary, but not 
in the engineering, courses of Harvard, Michigan, or 
in any other of our Universities. 

Emphasis is here placed upon the almost absolute 
freedom of choice at the Mining School, because many 
have mistaken the natural "sequence of studies" for 
''required studies." This error happens because in the 
prospectus of the elective system, issued last May, spe- 
cial attention was called to the natural sequences in 
chemistry, metallurgy, mechanical, electrical and min- 
ing engineering, ore-dressing and geology, provided any 
student wished to obtain every particle of instruction 
that is given in the Mining School in any of the sub- 
jects named. These outline schemes are merely signs 
showing the student some of the numerous ways of 
reaching the upper rooms of the house, but he has ab- 
solute freedom to use any of the other numerous ways 
that might just as well have been pointed out. Owing 
to the fact that in the usual discussions of elective sys- 
tems the natural sequence of studies is not dwelt upon, 
•it was expected that these guiding lines would be mis- 
taken for required courses by many readers, although 
it was thought the error was sufficiently guarded 
against in the prospectus on pages 11, 13, 14 and 25. 
The precaution seems not to have been entirely suc- 
cessful, since a friendly hand in a friendly journal*"^ has 

* American Geologist, 1895, XVI., 130. 



THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 7 

penned the following : " Students are allowed to select 
one of several courses with a certain principal subject, 
and in each course certain studies are required and 
the rest are elective. The school thus allows greater 
freedom in the selection of studies than do most mining 
schools." This friend has entirely misapprehended the 
facts, as the statements made above show. The free- 
dom of choice is not only greater than that allowed in 
all other mining schools or colleges, but, so far as the 
present writer is aware, also greater than that in all 
other technical or engineering colleges whatsoever. 

Although this is the first time this general freedom 
has ever been granted in any engineering college, the 
problem seemed to be so fully solved, so far as the 
special conditions of this institution are concerned, 
that when it was brought before the Faculty and the 
Board of Control it passed both bodies without a 
single objection. The ostensible working of the sys- 
tem does not go into full effect until September 16th 
of this year, yet the choice of electives has already 
been made, and the passage of all the students from a 
rigid system to an elective one has been accomplished 
Avithout any hitch or difficulty, and also with the 
students' unanimous approval. 

The courses in operation up to the time of com- 
mencement, August 16th of this year, were two ex- 
ceedingly rigid ones. The required work demanded 
of the student from seven to ten hours a day, five 
days a week, for forty-five weeks a year, and for three 
or four years (according to which course was taken) in 
the class room, laboratory, field, mine, or mill, while 
his daily preparatory work had to be attended to in 



8 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

outside time. When it is considered that all students, 
both special and regular, have been transferred, not 
only without trouble, but with general satisfaction, 
from one system to the other, the success seems almost 
phenomenal. 

In the elective system of the Michigan Mining 
School the unit of work is taken as three hours a 
week in the class room, or nine hours a week in the 
laboratory, for thirty-four weeks ; and this amount of 
work is called a course or a full course, while any sub- 
ject scheduled in the prospectus for less time is taken 
for its proportionate part of a full course. The stu- 
dent, to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Science, must 
complete eighteen full courses, and to obtain that of 
Mining Engineer, twenty-two full courses, which in 
both cases include the subjects of Elementary Geology 
and Mining. 

Owing to the fact that the regular work in the 
Michigan State Mining School extends through forty- 
five weeks of the year, a good student can obtain his 
degree in three or four years, depending upon the 
question of whether he remains during the entire 
forty-five weeks each year, or for only the first thirty- 
four weeks, or also whether he wishes his course to be 
largely of practical or of theoretical work. 

At the present time this institution has announced 
sixty-five different subjects or studies from which the 
pupil can make up his eighteen or twenty-two courses, 
only one of these full courses being of required work. 
In a required system of study the pupil can be carried 
over all the subjects that experience considers neces- 
sary for the successful prosecution of his future pro- 



THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 9 

fession, but this is always done at the expense of thor- 
oughness, and it pays but httle or no attention to the 
individuahty of every student or to the rapidly in- 
creasing specialization of work in every subject. It 
gains breadth, but it is at the expense of depth. 

In an elective system the individuahty of the stu- 
dent, the specialization of work in modern times, and 
the limitations of human capacity, are all considered. 
It loses in breadth, but it gains in the greater interest 
and, consequently, greater depth of the work done. 

Much can be said in favor of both systems, as the 
writer knows from long experience with both ; but there 
is one point that ought to be the controlling factor in 
every engineering college in deciding what it will do 
for the future. If the signs of the times and the his- 
tory of education are read aright, this is true and cer- 
tain, that whether we like the elective principle or 
not, whether we are wilhng to adopt it or not, every 
engineering or technical college in the land must and 
will adopt it in its entirety sooner or later, or else 
perish. It needs no Daniel to read the handwriting all 
over our walls. 

Discussion. 

Prof. Mansfield Merriman said that in regard to 
courses in mining it seemed to him that there was a 
greater freedom in choice and arrangement of the sub- 
jects than in any other kind of engineering courses ; 
that it was also very true that the number of students 
had decreased in a marked degree within a few years. 
Some mining courses, in fact, had gone out of exist- 
ence altogether, owing to lack of students. He thought 
that the freedom of election had been one of the causes 



10 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

of the students leaving the mining course of study 
and going into chemistry and civil engineering. The 
systematized courses appeared to be far the best, and 
if options were allowed, it seemed preferable that they 
should be confined to the senior year. 

Peofessor J. Galbraith felt that a system of the 
kind proposed in the paper was surrounded with 
great difficulties. If the student were to be left per- 
fectly free in the choice of the courses of study these 
courses would require to be perfectly self-contained, 
and there might be a great amount of overlapping in 
those selected by a student for his diploma. This 
overlapping means waste of time and labor. If the 
courses are arranged so that the number of combina- 
tions is very limited the students will be obliged to 
consult their teachers as to the best sets of combina- 
tions. Thus the so-called elective system will resolve 
itself into something very like the authoritative sys- 
tem. Students, as a rule, are not quahfied to select 
the various courses necessary for an engineering di- 
ploma. The experiment will be watched with in- 
terest. It appears to the speaker that a great deal of 
the desire at present noticeable among students for 
freedom of choice in their studies arises from their 
false conception of the German student. The latter 
is given in the university great freedom. Our stu- 
dents see this, but they forget or do not know that 
the German student has already gone through a disci- 
phne of the most severe kind, stretching over eight or 
nine years in the gymnasium or the Real schule, 
which has Httle or no counterpart in this country. 

Professor John M. Ordway would distinguish in 



THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 11 

this matter between the option of subjects and the op- 
tion of courses. The students should be required to 
take up certain subjects, such as hydraulics. Mining 
engineering might be divided into two or three differ- 
ent sections. One would involve more chemistry, 
another more of civil engineering and another more 
of mechanical engineering. The student should be 
allowed to choose one of those courses and the subjects 
that belong to it, and not to select individual subjects. 
Professor Heinrich O. Hofman explained that at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a few years 
ago there were in the mining department four different 
options with special reference to mechanical, civil 
and chemical studies, in order to satisfy the demands, 
in addition to the general mining and metallurgical 
course which a student took, if he showed no special 
preerfence for any of these branches. After a few 
years these options were found to work unsatis- 
factorily and this for two reasons : First, they re- 
quired a larger number of special teachers than it 
could very well be demanded of any school to furnish ; 
and secondly, students who had chosen one of the 
three special options found that the situations open to 
them after graduation were probably not in the special 
line they had selected. The department had now 
dropped two of the options, retaining the one in which 
the main study was mechanical engineering. It ad- 
vised every student who did not know definitely that 
he was to enter the iron and steel industry to take 
the general course as the only satisfactory way of 
thoroughly equipping himself to take, up any branch 
of practical work. 



12 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

AuTHOR^s Closure.* 

The author desires to thank those who took part in 
the discussion for supporting so fully the positions 
taken by him in his paper. He regrets that not one 
of the speakers grasped the cardinal point of the 
whole matter — The Sequence of Studies. If the elec- 
tive studies are arranged according to their true and 
natural sequence, and the instruction in each one is so 
given as to teach the student that which he must 
know at that stage of his course, none of the evils 
which have been so gravely feared can come into act- 
ual existence. 

If the work is not so arranged, troubles may occur, 
not because the system itself is defective, but because 
those who have planned its details have committed 
errors of judgment. 

An elective system, such as mentioned by Profes- 
sor Galbraith, could exist nowhere outside of a pri- 
mary school. His remarks appear to have no bear- 
ing whatever upon the system under discussion, since 
in this system overlapping is impossible, while it is 
a common and almost necessary evil where optional 
or parallel courses are offered. 

Elective studies and election of rigid courses, called 
options, seem to have been generally confounded in 
the discussion. The author objected to the latter as 
being in no wise electives, but only rigid courses 
merely masquerading as electives. Professor Hoff- 
man contributes valuable testimony as to the ineffi- 
ciency of these, and his statements of the undesirable 

^Communicated March 9, 1886. 



THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 13 

results at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
will be accepted by the author and others as authori- 
tative. 

In reply to Professor Ordway, it may be pointed out 
that whether hydraulics or any other subject is to be 
taken depends on the end the student desires to reach. 
Such matters are fully provided for by the sequence 
of studies, since every instructor has the right to, and 
is obhged to, demand that each student, before being 
admitted into his class, must have completed every 
preparatory subject essential to the work of that class. 
This procedure is a neccessary part of the system. 

The author has had over thirty-two years' experience 
with single rigid courses, optional courses and free 
elective studies. Which system should be adopted 
depends on special conditions peculiar to each institu- 
tion. His own experience leads the author to believe 
that the elective system, as already described, is supe- 
rior to the others, when guided by a strong and judi- 
cious hand, and properly guided by a united and com- 
petent Faculty. 

The apparent decadence of interest in mining engi- 
neering in many institutions, as mentioned by Profes- 
sor Merriman, is the natural and only logical result 
flowing from Avell-known causes which have already 
been pointed out in the author's published reports.* 
One of these causes is the location of the college in a 
region whose people are indifferent to the technical or 
engineering interests involved, and where the student 
is not in daily contact with practical applications of 

^Report of the Director of the Michigan Mining School, 1886-1891. pp. 
25, 34, 35 and 37. 



14 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 

the subject he is studying. Money can not buy 
equipment enough to overbalance the influence of an 
unsuitable location. Another cause is the overshad- 
owing of the mining courses by other technical courses 
which are more fostered and developed by the special 
surroundings of the college. A third and most potent 
cause is the fact that most courses of mining engineer- 
ing are made up of shreds and patches — mere excerpts 
or leavings from other technical courses, instead of 
being solid, systematic, and thoroughly worked-out 
schemes to train men to develop the mineral wealth 
of the country. 

The history of education in America seems to point 
out that the wisest course is to provide institutions 
which are devoted to a single technical purpose, and 
in thorough harmony with their surroundings. Oth- 
erwise the tendency is very great for the strong courses 
to crowd out the weak ones. So true is this that there 
probably can not be found in the United States over 
four colleges which stand really distinguished in more 
than one engineering line. 



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